How Your World Works

Popular Mechanics / Panoply
  • 4.3 (55)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

This is a podcast about how the world works, featuring the news, stories, and people that make it happen.

  1. 01/30/2017

    Episode 42: How to Make the Super Bowl

    On today's show, Kevin Dupzyk and James Lynch talk to Fox NFL Director Rich Russo and Producer Richie Zyontz. The pair have been producing sporting events together for years, and on February 5 they'll be the men behind the curtain for Super Bowl LI. We ask them about what it takes to make a modern-day NFL broadcast come together, and hear which legendary NFL coach laid the foundation for what we now expect from watching a football game on TV. And then, because we initially interviewed them before the Super Bowl matchup was set, we give them a call to check back in and find out what they'll be watching for when the Patriots and Falcons take the field in Houston. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    34 min

  2. 01/14/2017

    Episode 41: How to Test Everything

    On today's show, we talk to our good friend Rachel Rothman, Chief Technologist at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Working on a specialized floor a few levels up from Popular Mechanics, she and a team of engineers test stoves, clothes, food, cars--pretty much everything you encounter in day-to-day life. She explains how she got into such an exacting line of work, how it's heightened her neuroses (and given her new ones), and why it's ultimately so rewarding.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    26 min

  3. 12/30/2016

    Episode 40: How to Avoid Flight Delays

    On today's show, Steve Abraham, a long time air traffic controller at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, tells us about his job--everything from how he get into it (and how that's changed), to the time he had two airplanes flying one on top of the other, to the fact that, yes, dangerous situations like that are very rare, even if delays aren't. Musical thanks this episode to minusbaby for "Flying." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    32 min

  4. 12/17/2016

    Episode 39: How to Make a Camp Stove (For Good)

    BioLite is an interesting company. Their signature product is a camp stove that burns wood and uses some of the heat to charge a battery, which can, in turn, charge small electronic devices. It's great for camping. But it's also great for people who don't have easy access to electricity or clean-burning fires (which turns out to be a lot of people). On today's show, CEO Jonathan Cedar explains how his company went from simply trying to improve combustion to having offices in India and Africa. Special musical thanks this episode to Jahzzar for "Fire Ahead." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    31 min

  5. 12/03/2016

    Episode 38: How to Run A Super Secret Defense Project

    On today's episode, guest host and Popular Mechanics Contributing Editor Dan Dubno takes us inside the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to learn about new technology that can allow a man to climb anywhere. Until he falls, which may or may not have happened to Dan Dubno. Musical thanks for this episode goes to The Crypts! for their song Marie Curie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    30 min

  6. 11/19/2016

    Episode 37: How to Make a Museum Exhibit

    The preparators of the American Museum of Natural History's Exhibitions Department are artists and craftsmen by trade who become scientists by practice as they build the museum's famed traveling exhibitions. In what may be the coolest workshop in the whole of New York City, they use wood, metal, epoxy, paint, and hundred-year-old death masks to build dioramas that transport visitors to settings all over the natural world. As they undertake final preparations for their latest exhibition, Cuba!, which opens November 21, we visit the workshop to see what they've built. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    32 min

  7. 11/04/2016

    Episode 36: How to Run An Election

    For today's episode, Popular Mechanics' political correspondent Mark Warren joins to interview Dana DeBeauvoir, County Clerk of Travis County, Texas (It's where Austin is). She discusses the preparations Travis County is undertaking for a record-breaking 2016 general election, and helps Mark address some of the concerns we've heard about polling places. Let this episode be your reminder to go out and vote. Musical thanks for today's episode goes to Podington Bear for their tracks "60s Quiz Show" and "Just Watching." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    27 min

  8. 10/24/2016

    Episode 35: How to Design a Haunted House

    With Halloween fast approaching, we talk to Leonard Pickel of Hauntrepreneurs - a company that designs haunted attractions from the ground up. An architect by training, Pickel explains how he distorts the stuff he did in the studio to create spaces that put people on edge. He also explains the hardest type of person to scare, the scariest room he's ever designed, and the worst scare he's ever received. The music in this episode is "Soundtrack 2, Act 3" by Tim Nelson, from "Caligari: An Exquisite Corpse - The Visitant, by The Tunnel." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    32 min
See All (42)

4.3
out of 5
55 Ratings

About

This is a podcast about how the world works, featuring the news, stories, and people that make it happen.

Information

  • Creator
    Popular Mechanics / Panoply
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2017
  • Episodes
    42
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Popular Mechanics 2015
  • Show Website
    How Your World Works

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